HarperCollins India on Friday, 4 September said it will publish Congress leader Sonia Gandhi’s memoir Belonging: A Journey of Love in India on 10 November, ending the uncertainty over the book’s domestic publication following an “impasse” between the author’s representatives and Penguin Random House India (PRHI).
‘One of the most anticipated political memoirs of our time, Belonging is a dramatic and deeply personal story of love, identity, duty and belonging, and offers a rare insider’s view of India’s journey,’ HarperCollins India said in a statement.
HarperCollins India’s announcement follows a controversy involving PRHI, which was initially keen to publish the memoir but subsequently said it would not be the Indian publisher. The controversy began amid reports of alleged differences between the publisher and the author’s representatives over editorial changes to the manuscript.
Several Congress leaders raised issues of governmental pressure and freedom of expression with some alleging that there was pressure on Penguin India to remove sections relating to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the RSS and China’s occupation of Indian territory during the Modi regime.
However, while maintaining there was ‘no external pressure whatsoever’, PRHI declined to disclose the exact nature of the impasse, citing confidentiality clauses and their agreement with the author.
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